


Right Here Next to Yesterday

by sageness



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Canon - TV, Cliche, F/F, Genderswap, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-05-31
Updated: 2007-05-31
Packaged: 2017-10-03 19:20:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sageness/pseuds/sageness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kate regained consciousness slowly. She felt like she'd been turned into a rubber band, stretched to full length, and shot across a room.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Right Here Next to Yesterday

**Author's Note:**

> Written for alien altars' Femslash Cliché Challenge, assigned prompt: genderswitch, with gratitude to Chelle for beta-reading &amp; Nando for being awesome.

**I**

Kate woke to the chirp of a radio and the rustle of Teyla digging her earpiece from the tangle of clothing on the floor. "This is Teyla," she said quietly. Kate could hear the tinny twang of Sheppard's voice in the silence of the room. After a moment, Teyla said, "Yes, Colonel," and clicked off.

"Emergency?" Kate asked.

Teyla sank back into the bed, wrapping her arms around Kate and kissing her softly. "Not really. A situation on Reema requires a negotiator and Rodney's scientific expertise, so…"

"How long?" Kate murmured, snuggling closer.

"Half an hour."

"Did he say how long it would take?"

Teyla shook her head. "Knowing the Reem, it could last an hour or a week. They are an unpredictable people, I'm afraid." Her eyes went wide in the dim room. "Oh, Kate, Balán! I completely forgot—"

"It's all right." Kate pressed a kiss to her lips and smiled softly. "Missions take precedence."

"I wanted to show you the city."

"We'll go together next time." Kate kissed her again. "Tell me, what can I bring back for you?"

"Mmmmm." Teyla traced a line from Kate's eyebrow to the shell of her ear. Then a bright smile lit her face. "Binti fruit, if you can find it. It is green—skinned, but the inside is orange. It is very sweet and was always a treat when I was young."

"I'll look for it."

"Thank you." Teyla ran her finger down from Kate's lips to her neck, then her left nipple, and then covered her heart with her hand.

Kate covered Teyla's hand. "Be careful."

Teyla raised Kate's hand to her lips and kissed it.

***

Over her shoulder, Major Lorne was yelling at the scientists for the tenth time not to get separated and for god's sake not to wander off. Kate suppressed a laugh, but the shopkeeper waiting on her caught her eye and smiled widely. The stall sold silver jewelry. It had been a long time since Kate had had new earrings—years since she'd had the leisure to browse like this.

Shore leave for the civilians had been mostly her own idea, but she hadn't quite realized how much she herself needed it. She wished Teyla were there.

Clutching her woven sack of binti fruit, Kate left the silver worker's and wandered on after the others. The market here resembled a Middle Eastern souk; it was fascinating and warren-like, and she felt a surge of sympathy for Lorne's efforts to keep everyone more or less together.

Kate crossed to the left—a dress shop had a bright yellow skirt hanging from the awning that was in the style Teyla preferred for training. "Do you have this in other colors?" she asked. The woman waved her in, and ten minutes later, Kate exited the stall with another bag in her arms and a smile on her face.

A little further up the way, she could see Ben Robinson standing in front of a counter full of gizmos and spare parts. Robinson was an engineer, and right then he looked positively giddy. "Come have a look!" he shouted to someone half-hidden by the next awning up. A moment later, Julian Weston appeared, and behind Robinson, the junk-dealer beamed, probably increasing the price of whatever they'd found by tenfold.

The sun beat down—surely it was nearly time for lunch, Kate thought. Maybe she'd run across a stall selling cold drinks soon. Then Weston was holding something silver, was turning to look at it in the sunlight, and Kate went down in a flash of white.

***

Kate regained consciousness slowly. She felt like she'd been turned into a rubber band, stretched to full length, and shot across a room. The first thing she realized was she was in the infirmary. That was probably a good thing, she thought. It seemed to be the late shift, since no one was in her immediate vicinity. She looked up and read her vitals off the monitor beeping to her left. Everything looked fine. That was good, good. Then she shifted slightly, stretching her spine, and snapped fully awake.

"Oh my god," she said, smoothing her hands down her flat chest to the soft lumpy flesh lying at the join of her thighs.

"Carson!" she yelled, then closed her mouth in surprise at the strange pitch of her voice. Corpsman Walker appeared a second later, speaking into his radio as he approached. He handed her a cup of water. "Dr. Heightmeyer, Dr. Beckett will be here in a moment." She took the water and stared down at the thermal blanket covering her body.

"The good news," Carson told her, "is you appear to be perfectly healthy. We'll keep you here for a bit to monitor the physical discomfort of the transformation, of course, but—"

"Let's talk about reversing the transformation."

He sighed noisily. "I hate to say this, but I'm afraid we're simply going to have to wait for Colonel Sheppard's team to return from their mission. Whatever happened when Dr. Weston activated the device damaged it, and Dr. Zelenka doesn't want to go tinkering until the colonel returns. In the meantime, I believe they're searching the database for similar technology."

"I see." Fantastic, just fantastic. Kate held her face as still as she could. She hurt, a lot, but she didn't want to let them start the painkillers yet. She was too tall—her feet had never reached the end of a bed. Her limbs were heavy. Her hips were square. Everything in front of her perineum was…god, she was a man. Maybe she'd take that sedative after all.

**II**

It seemed to be the next morning when she awoke. Elizabeth was there. There was a fresh cup of water, awkward small talk, and the official debrief of what Kate remembered.

"Your purchases from the market are in your quarters. Dr. Weston and Dr. Robinson are both mortified and send their heartfelt apologies. I'm sure you have email from them both waiting for you."

Kate offered a wan smile. "I know it was an accident. Would you tell them I don't blame them?"

"Of course. And Kate, you know we'll do everything we can."

She nodded. "Have you heard from the colonel's team?"

"Not yet. The negotiation site is quite a distance from the stargate, so we aren't due to hear from them for several hours, yet." Kate nodded. "If you need someone to talk to…" Elizabeth smiled weakly.

"Thank you. I'll let you know if I do." Which was to say, absolutely not. Elizabeth's nurturing instincts were fine and good, but Kate wasn't willing to compromise her command staff doctor/patient relationships because of this disaster. No, she'd talk to Teyla…assuming Teyla…oh. She had no idea how Teyla would react to this.

***

Hours passed. Kate ate, took her first tentative steps on her new legs, promptly fell on her face, and made use of the infirmary washroom to examine her new equipment. Peeing standing up felt strange, but oddly liberating. The real mystery was her face. She looked frightfully like a mixture of her brother and father, except she still had her long hair. Her face was more angular, her lips were thinner, her jaw was differently shaped…but her nose and eyes were essentially the same. It was incredibly disturbing.

She practiced walking, sitting, touching her toes, and judging distances with her new proportions and center of gravity. "I feel like a toddler," she told Dr. Coleman, when she came to check on her.

"Give yourself time, Kate," she answered, and all Kate could do was nod. It was difficult to be in the patient's position. It had been too long since she'd been able to see any of the SGC's psychiatrists—she was at least a month overdue for her quarterly session, and the Daedalus wasn't due for another six weeks. Thank god she had Teyla. Kate hoped she and her team would be home soon.

**III**

The next time Kate woke up, she hurt much less. She also had an erection. It was the strangest sensation—the weight between her legs, the tightness in her groin muscles and her lower abdomen, how _external_ everything was. She felt like she might as well be naked; the scrubs certainly left nothing to the imagination. After a few minutes, it went away—another bizarre sensation—and she got up to use the lavatory. When she returned, Carson was at her bedside waiting.

"How are you feeling this morning?" He was smiling brightly, putting on his best bedside manner.

"Much better, thank you. Still the wrong sex, but…" She shrugged. "What time is it?"

"A little after six in the morning. You slept right through the evening." She nodded. "What we want to do now is get your new height and weight recorded. Then we'd like to put you in the scanner one more time, just to make certain everything's working properly. And then you'll be free to go about your business."

"Return to duty?" Kate asked, dubious.

"Oh no, I'm sure Dr. Weir will suggest you take a few days—"

"A few _days_? Is Colonel Sheppard's team not back yet?"

Carson shook his head. "No, Kate, I'm afraid not."

***

She had grown five inches in height but remained approximately the same weight, so she now stood an extremely skinny 5'11". Her hair was the same as before, long and blonde; and the hair on her legs was still shaved, just beginning to stubble. Her jaw had squared off and her cheeks had hollowed. She had an Adam's apple. Her shoes didn't fit. She put on drawstring sweats that reached only to mid-calf, a formerly oversized t-shirt she usually slept in, socks, and hoped no one would notice her lack of footwear.

She wanted Teyla. She wanted Teyla's team back—and suddenly she recalled what Teyla had said about the Reem—that the negotiations could easily take up to a week.

In the corridor on the way to the mess, she met Elizabeth. "I was just on my way to the infirmary to find you," Elizabeth said. "Major Lorne has volunteered to find you some clothing."

"That would be wonderful. Join me for breakfast?" Kate said.

"Are you sure?"

"I think I could eat a horse." And it was the truth. She knew people would stare, but this body was facing a severe lack of calories; they would all simply have to make do.

"So…" Elizabeth started, once Kate was halfway through her stack of pancakes. "How are you, really? This has to be…I can't even imagine what you must be going through."

Kate chewed and swallowed. "To be honest, I'm trying not to think too hard about it. All I can do at the moment is wait for Colonel Sheppard and Dr. McKay to return."

Elizabeth nodded. "That makes sense. You should consider yourself off-duty for the next few days, all right? If we have a psychiatric emergency, we'll call you, but barring that…"

With a dry laugh, Kate said, "I believe I'm the only psychiatric emergency in the city at the moment."

"Could I help you find someone to talk with? It doesn't have to be me, obviously. Actually, if I were in your position right now, I would probably be screaming."

Kate sipped her coffee. "If they can't reverse this, I may start. But there isn't any point in worrying about that yet. Do you have any idea how much longer they'll be?"

Elizabeth checked her watch. "I should find out within the next hour. I'll radio you when I know."

After cancelling her appointments for the day and replying to the various emails offering apologies, sympathy, and a couple of tasteless jokes that cheered her up more than any of the rest had, Kate went up to Engineering to have a look at the device that had done this to her. Dr. Zelenka was peering at a monitor hooked up to something shaped like a toaster oven. The device was inside.

"Anything?" she asked quietly. It was very strange to be looking down at him.

"Ah, no. Not yet. Three departments are searching the database for anything with a similar design, as well as references to gender reassignment technology. It is…slow."

"I take it there isn't an 'undo' setting?"

"Weston tried that first, while you were unconscious. The device would not respond."

"And taking it apart?"

"Would be inadvisable until we see if the colonel can work his magic on it. It is sad to say, but for small handheld systems he remains our best diagnostic tool."

Kate bit back her disappointment, thanked Zelenka, and left before her bravado fell apart.

Rationally, she knew she ought to be cataloguing her reactions and changing mental state. It would help her be a better doctor the next time a member of the expedition came back as a bug or met their double from another universe or otherwise had their entire life turned upside down in any of the ways Pegasus excelled.

However, no one could blame her if she didn't want to look in the mirror. Refusing to rush into this new situation was entirely understandable, especially as it was only temporary.

And yet, this _was_ her body. Excepting her new y-chromosome, she was the same as ever.

"Four hours," Elizabeth said over the radio a little later. Kate acknowledged, feeling both relief and frustration. _Four hours_…but this was hardly a matter of life or death.

She hadn't had more than a sponge bath since before leaving for Balán. A shower would help.

Washing her hair, at least, was the same as ever, except for being so much closer to the showerhead; however, the flatness of her chest continued to be a disturbing surprise. There was no chest hair—yet—but she felt sure it would begin to grow in if she had to live with these testosterone levels much longer. The narrowness of her hips and complete shift of her center of gravity kept surprising her, too. And the penis and testicles—she soaped them gently, feeling the slick caress of her fingers over new flesh. God, what would Teyla say? Would she be horrified? Would she be turned on? Would she be disappointed when her body changed back to normal?

Kate caught herself—that _was_ an unreasonable thought. She and Teyla had chosen each other, that was what mattered. Thinking of Teyla, Kate felt her blood rushing and the penis—all right, _her_ penis, her dick, her cock—began to rise. It was hers. An outsized clitoris. Thousands of nerves bundled in erectile tissue. A non-detachable penis. She stroked it as she sometimes did her strap-on when Teyla was watching and imagined Teyla's touch here, on this new skin. Pushing into her fist, she imagined the feeling of Teyla's body pulling her inside, as warm and wet and welcoming as she ever was to Kate's strap-on, but real and perfect, and all too soon, Kate was spilling over her hand.

***

Kate could hear Rodney grousing from the infirmary door. "We're fine, you vampire! How many times do I—holy shit!"

"Kate," Elizabeth said, "I was just starting the debriefing while Carson finishes their examinations."

"What the hell happened?" Rodney yelled.

While Elizabeth and Carson explained, Kate watched Teyla. Rodney dominated the conversation, pressing questions until he slid off the examination table, keyed his radio, and started a rapid-fire listing of orders. "Sheppard, we'll need you in the lab in five!" he called over his shoulder, and then he was gone.

Then he was back, standing awkwardly in front of Kate—looking up at her to make eye contact. "Wow, you look—um, surprisingly not all that different. I mean, that is to say, I'll get this fixed as quickly as possible. I just wanted you to know."

"Thank you, Rodney," she said. Blushing, he left for a second time.

"Kate," Teyla said, volumes of unspoken worry underlying the syllable.

"I'm okay," Kate answered.

A significant look passed between Carson and Elizabeth, and Kate suspected she and Teyla had just outed themselves; but at the moment, Kate was hard-pressed to care. Carson made a few notes on Teyla's chart and nodded. "Free to go."

"Am I free to go?" John asked. Next to him, Ronon got to his feet.

Carson shot them a testy glare. "You can wait thirty seconds 'til I'm done, lads."

***

"You are truly well?" Teyla asked as soon as they reached an otherwise empty section of corridor. She was holding Kate's hand, feeling the bones under her fingers. Teyla stood back to look her up and down. She looked even more filled with worry than Kate had imagined.

Kate tilted her head in an old, familiar gesture. "Underweight for this body, I'm afraid, but I'm not sick or injured."

"I am so sorry the mission to Reema took so long. I wish I had been here."

"It's all right," Kate said. "I'm just glad you're back."

Teyla pressed the transporter pad and led them to her quarters. "Would you mind if I showered the dust off before we talk?"

"Of course not. I'll wait for you."

On the bed were the bowl of binti fruit Kate had arranged the day before, and the dark green skirt she had chosen in the Balandi market; Kate had forgotten all about them.

Teyla turned. "Surprise," Kate murmured.

"This is beautiful!" Teyla said, her face lighting up, and Kate was glad to see something in her eyes besides worry.

"I saw another like it and thought of you. I thought the green would suit you."

"Thank you." Teyla leaned into her space, too far away now for Kate to easily kiss. With an awkward laugh, Kate hugged her instead, ignoring the sweat and dust for the feel of Teyla in her arms. She, at least, felt the same. Even if Kate didn't.

While Teyla showered, Kate sat at the desk and let the scent of beeswax and Teyla soothe her nerves. Teyla emerged sooner than Kate expected, and all the worry was back, fully apparent, on her face. She pulled on a brown bodice and the new sparring skirt. "Tell me again how this happened? And when?"

"In Balandi," Kate said, watching Teyla towel her hair. The skirt was slit high up her thighs in the most flattering way possible. "Dr. Weston accidentally activated a device in the market. I happened to be in the line of fire."

Teyla looked up, catching something in her tone maybe, hearing what she wasn't quite saying. "I would like to lie down with you, if that is all right?" Teyla said, and Kate hated the tentativeness in her voice.

Teyla moved the bowl of fruit to the nightstand and lay on the left half of the bed. Kate rose and moved to her side, sitting with care not to overbalance. They lay on their sides, nestled together. It was awkward, as everything was now. Normally Kate was two inches taller than Teyla; now she was seven. Her hand was now so much larger. Her entire frame was. Leaning forward, Teyla placed a gentle kiss on Kate's lips. Then another. Kate kissed her back, overwhelmed by the sameness and difference of it—she had always loved kissing Teyla, but they fit together differently now and it seemed to her that Teyla tasted a little differently now, too.

Teyla cupped Kate's cheek, scraping her thumb along Kate's jaw. "This is…"

Kate raised a hand to her face. Light stubble was beginning to grow in—already. A nervous laugh escaped before she regained her self-control.

"What?" Teyla continued stroking her cheek softly.

"Only that I have no idea how to shave a beard. I'll have to borrow an electric razor from the infirmary."

Teyla gazed at her in silence for several moments. "Rodney will reverse this."

Kate swallowed hard. When she found her voice, she said, "And if he can't?"

Teyla tugged Kate to her and rolled, so Kate covered her as she never had before. Held tight within the circle of Teyla's arms, she pressed her face into Teyla's neck and breathed in. Teyla's hands soothed the tension in her shoulders, and after a long while, Kate began to feel slightly less outsized and awkward and wrong.

***

Kate drifted off where she lay—she hadn't meant to, but it was an enormous relief to be held and to have Rodney at work on the problem. When she awoke, it was with a start. She was curled around Teyla's side, unconsciously grinding her erection against Teyla's hip. It felt incredible; then she realized what she was doing and nearly fell out of bed, she rolled away so quickly.

Teyla caught her by the wrist before she went tumbling, but nothing could stop her embarrassed blush.

"I'm sorry," Kate said. She was trying to read Teyla's expression, but she was so distracted by the ache between her legs, she wasn't sure what she was seeing.

"Kate." Teyla placed a soft kiss on Kate's lips. "Your eyes are the same. Your body may be different, but I know this is still you."

Kate blinked. Since being released from the infirmary, she'd avoided almost everyone. She knew the staring was a normal part of incorporating change, but that didn't make it less unsettling for the person being stared at.

"How do you feel?" Teyla asked.

Kate blushed again. "Better for the nap, but…well, aroused. And confused."

"Confused?"

She hesitated. "You know that I don't like to make assumptions about your feelings, but obviously…a sudden change of gender could pose a certain threat to a couple's relationship."

Teyla pressed her lips into a line. A long moment later she said, "It has always been difficult, knowing you might have to return to your world at any time."

Kate nodded. "That's a large part of why we're not supposed to become involved with people from other worlds."

"And yet." Teyla took Kate's hand. "Here we are."

"Teyla, if this is more than you want to deal with—"

"I am wearing your gift, am I not?" A laugh escaped, unbidden, and Teyla kissed her warmly, stroking her hands down Kate's flat chest and renewing the flare of heat in her groin. "I do not care what body you are in, have you not yet realized that?"

"You want…?"

Looking into her eyes, Teyla said, "I missed you while I was away. I would like to share whatever you feel comfortable doing."

Kate smiled, only a little nervous now. "Then, I suppose we could see what it's like."

***

"Oh, Teyla." Kate slid her cock in a little further, feeling the front wall of Teyla's cunt rub against the ridge of her cock.

Teyla tightened her thighs around Kate's hips, pulling her deeper. "More. I want to feel you."

"I'll come."

"And afterwards, we can do it again." Teyla ground her hips, thrusting from below. Moaning, Kate braced her arms and tried to pretend she was only fucking Teyla with a strap-on, that she could last, that she could make Teyla come with her cock and—no, no chance. Her balls were drawing up tight and then she was shooting into Teyla's body.

It took a long moment to come back to awareness. She was still inside Teyla and overwhelmingly sensitive. She bent her head to meet Teyla's kiss, and felt the ache in her abs.

"Are you all right?" Teyla asked.

"Better than." Kate stared down at their still-joined bodies. "Wow."

Teyla planted her feet on the bed and moved her hips in a measured circle. "Are you…?"

Kate thrust back carefully. She was softer now, but she could probably get the erection back if she tried. She pulled most of the way out and pushed back in slow. Yes, that was better. She did it again and tried to pay attention to what gave Teyla the most pleasure.

After, Teyla curled up against her and lay, warm and soft as ever, stroking Kate's side. It felt good to be held.

Much later, Teyla murmured against her shoulder, "Would you like to talk about it?"

Kate kissed Teyla's eyebrow and shifted her legs so Teyla's thigh fit between them. Teyla's back was as soft as ever. If she shut her eyes, she could pretend she was still a woman in body as well as mind. Kate sighed. "I know I should. I know that I'm going through the normal aftermath of a traumatic event. I feel helpless, I'm angry, I'm even pretending it's all a nightmare that Dr. McKay will miraculously fix." She squeezed Teyla's shoulder. "Understanding the stages unfortunately doesn't exempt me from experiencing them."

Rolling onto her stomach, Teyla stroked a piece of hair out of Kate's eyes.

"You know, some people fantasize about spending a day in the body of the opposite sex. I never have, but…."

Teyla's eyes were dark and serious. "If Rodney cannot repair the device, we will adapt."

"Teyla—"

"Kate, please listen. It might have killed you as easily as it transformed you. I am only relieved to have you here now, whole and alive."

_But different_, Kate thought, all too aware of her missing breasts and intrusive new genitals. Sex had been an enjoyable experiment, enough to prove this might be fun, recreationally, under other circumstances. But not like this.

***

Hours had passed. Kate was a patient woman—she had built a career on her ability to wait her patients out and tease the important secrets and suppressed memories into the light—but she needed to see what progress was being made.

"Don't touch anything," Rodney said, and then he went back to comparing artifact bin labels against diagrams on the monitor. After a while, he looked up. "We're cannibalizing parts, but this thing was more than a little specialized, as I'm sure you can imagine, so the search is taking far longer than I initially anticipated." His eyes roamed critically over her new body. "I wonder why it made you taller."

"Actually, now I'm the same height as my father and brother. Normally, I'm a couple of inches taller than my mother. That leads me to think the device remakes you as you would have been."

"Huh," Rodney said, staring a moment longer before going back to work.

"I wanted to thank you for going to so much effort," she said.

"Don't be ridiculous," Rodney said, and then met her eyes. "Um, that is…I mean—I wish we'd been here. We could have jumped on this immediately and saved you a few days of…" He waved a hand in a vague gesture.

She smiled faintly. "Yes."

***

Teyla came to Kate's quarters that night bearing two takeout cartons of dinner. Kate blinked sleep from her eyes. It was almost nine. "Thank you," she said, and kissed Teyla hello. Stooping to meet Teyla's mouth made it difficult to aim.

As they arranged themselves to eat, Teyla said, "I stopped by Rodney's lab earlier. He said they were 'onto something.' He seemed very excited."

"Oh, thank god," Kate replied.

Teyla grinned. "I thought you would be relieved to hear it."

Kate let out a breath and tried to force her shoulders to relax. "You have no idea. I want—I want to stop feeling trapped in a stranger's body. I miss being a woman. I miss feeling like myself."

Teyla's arms went around her and lips touched her face, her eyelids, her hair. "Kate, you are allowed to feel frustration over this," she said, holding her tight. "Anger is—"

"I know, and I am. I'm incredibly angry, but that isn't easy for me to express, especially in this body. I want to punch things, and you know I'm not at all violent by nature."

"I can teach you to punch things."

Suppressing a snort, Kate lay back on her bed. "Would you like to have sex again?" she asked the ceiling.

Teyla laughed and set the remains of their food on the desk. "Actually, I would very much enjoy the chance to explore this body again before you return to your normal form."

Kate propped herself up on an elbow and gazed critically down the line of her body. "Will you miss this?"

Teyla shot her a look that Kate knew she reserved for Colonel Sheppard's more ridiculous ideas, the ones that were usually accompanied by Rodney's shout of _Hello, have you lost your mind?_ Then Teyla was crawling up over her, propping herself on her hands, and dropping tiny kisses onto Kate's lips. After several moments, Teyla asked, "What if something had occurred on Reema and I had turned into a man? Would it matter to you?"

"Of course not," Kate said against Teyla's lips. "You're you, and my feelings for you don't depend on gender."

Teyla kissed her again, a little longer, a little harder. "That is good."

Kate drew her hands up to cup Teyla's breasts. She missed her breasts. The cock in her pants was beginning to lengthen and fill in its strange and distracting way. Teyla kissed her harder and more blood rushed to the region. "I do miss my body, though."

"Yes," Teyla agreed, "but perhaps I can help give you some enjoyable memories of this one?"

**IV**

"Dr. Heightmeyer, this is Weir." Kate fumbled the earpiece into place before she sleepily acknowledged.

"Sorry if I woke you," Elizabeth said, "but I wanted to let you know Rodney has finished the repairs to the device."

"Really," Kate said, slowly grasping what she was saying. "When—"

There was a pause and indiscernible chatter in the background, and then Elizabeth said, "Okay, I've been advised to suggest you skip breakfast, in case there's nausea. And as far as when, just come to the infirmary when you're ready."

Kate thanked her and clicked off. Next to her Teyla's eyes were open. "Morning," Kate said, and Teyla pulled her back down into her arms.

"Is there anything you want to do before…?"

Kate thought about it. She remembered the first two days in the infirmary and how terrible she'd felt. "Shower," she said. If nothing else, this time she could start out clean.

Kate sat on the hospital bed, dressed in scrubs. Colonel Sheppard stood a few feet away, holding a flat silver rhomboid in his hand. To his left, Rodney stood, fidgeting impatiently. Teyla stood at Kate's shoulder, radiant and calm. And Carson stood on the other side, next to the monitor, waiting for Kate to pass out before attaching his handful of sensor pads to her skin.

"Ready?" the colonel said.

Kate took a steadying breath. "Yes," she answered, and the world dissolved in a flash of white.

***

When she came to in her curtained-off bed, she felt like someone had picked up the old rubber band and shot it back across the room in the other direction. Everything hurt. Especially her bones. She felt like a cartoon giant had stepped on her, squashing her down to her old height. And her breasts! Her breasts were back and they had never felt so heavy. And between her legs, there was her clit and the tender depth of her cunt—and her hips were gloriously round, exactly as they ought to be. The nightmare was over. Over, at last. She went back to sleep.

The next time she awoke, she checked everything again. The third time, too.

And the third time, Teyla was there with her. She kissed Kate's soft skin. Her hands glided gently over Kate's curves as if to confirm their reality. She stroked Kate's hair, saying softly, "It worked, Kate. You're going to be fine." And later, "You must rest now." And, "I will be here when you wake up." Kate caught Teyla's fingers and kissed the knuckles. Then she let the quiet beeping of the monitor lull her down into tomorrow.

**Author's Note:**

> [Story notes](http://sageness.livejournal.com/948049.html) are here.


End file.
